The ACA blog provides readers with information to help them advance their knowledge, achieve their professional goals and strive for excellence, while also creating a greater sense of community among chiropractors nationwide through online engagement and information-sharing with their colleagues.

ACA blogs! How about you? For ACA's editorial policy and guidelines for writers, click here.

Just over one year removed from graduation, I feel like I am a competent practitioner. But being simply competent isn’t enough--being the best that I can be is my goal. Thinking back, I realize there were a handful of things I could have done in school that would have benefitted me in the working world. On occasion, when I'm working on a particularly difficult patient, I reflect on my undergraduate and graduate school careers and sometimes think, “If I could redo it, I would.…” We all have things in our lives we wish we could change; that’s just part of living. What if we didn’t make those mistakes in the first place? We can’t change it, but I realized that others can learn from our mistakes. I am writing this blog post with that in mind. I want to share, as a new doctor, the things that I would do differently and what some of my more experienced peers would do differently.

It's been 30 years since ACA senior scientific advisor Christine Goertz, DC, graduated from Northwestern Health Sciences University. As she prepared to give the commencement address to the NWHSU class of 2018 this spring, Dr. Goertz couldn't recall the words of wisdom from her own commencement day...but, looking back, she knew exactly what she wished someone would have advised her as she embarked on her career in chiropractic. Read her Top 10 list of recommendations for this year's new graduates.

The #MeToo stories that have flooded social media in recent weeks have initiated a much-needed conversation across the country, a conversation that illustrates the very different experiences that men and women can have in male-dominated professions. In her latest blog post, ACA Senior Scientific Advisor Christine Goertz, DC, PhD, notes that, as one of a very small handful of women who has served in chiropractic leadership roles since she was a student, she has had a great deal of experience navigating the awkward and sometimes very uncomfortable waters generated by gender bias.

*Member-Exclusive Content* ACA’s first Facebook Live discussion, “Women in Chiropractic,” has been viewed by more than 5,000 people to date. The discussion explored the opportunities and challenges that women encounter in the chiropractic profession and celebrated the unique approach and perspectives that they bring to patient care. Viewers were invited to submit questions during the broadcast, and following are answers from moderator Christine Goertz, DC, and featured guests Sarah Potthoff, DC, and Keita Vanterpool, DC.